Merchandising display

ABSTRACT

A merchandising display system has gravity-feed containers that have a dispensing opening near the bottom in the front wall of the container, in which similar containers are arranged side-by-side and restrained from moving back and forth on the shelf by a cleat that restrains the container. A display bar that displays products such as electrical instruments is supported by pegboard and the products being displayed are dispensed from directly above the displayed product from a hook that extends from the pegboard.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/676,371 filed Apr. 29, 2005.

STATEMENT CONCERNING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to merchandising displays, and in particular to such a display for small items that can be dispensed from a container.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Big box retailers have proliferated. As is well known, these stores sell mainly based on price and must be operated efficiently to survive. It is normal that such stores stock many different items. Just keeping the shelves stocked and in reasonable order is a major task. In addition, each manufacturer whose products are sold in these stores has a natural concern that the big box retailer sees an advantage to doing business with that manufacturer and ultimately that the consumer will choose that manufacturer's products over a competitor's.

Retailers and consumers are surrounded by competing brands. Consumers more often than not reach first for the best displayed products with the most clear, easy-to-understand specifications, features and applications. Signage, packaging and display plays a large part in purchasing decisions, as consumers' perception of the product is determined in many cases by the display and packaging.

Many different methods of merchandising have been tried. A common form is simply to place products in bins that are open at the top for the consumer to pick the products from the bins. There is usually some sort of sign or placard at the front of the bin or on the shelf adjacent to the front of the bin that gives some information about the products such as specifications and the price.

Another common method of merchandising is by packaging each product in bags, blister or clam shell packs and hanging the packs from a hook. These can be relatively difficult to restock, and thought to be relatively unnecessary for small items which can be more efficiently bagged and boxed or simply boxed. Also, when the density of these displays becomes great with many different small products in a small space, it can be confusing for the consumer. Thus, merchandisers have an interest in effective merchandising to the consumer. Manufacturers who have a number of different products within a product family face particular challenges since limited shelf space will be allotted by the retailer to the entire product family, and it is in both of their interests to display the products in an appealing manner. Where there are multiple small products, the challenges are amplified. The present invention addresses these issues.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a merchandising display in which product display and dispensing containers are supported on a shelf. In addition, a cleat or keeper is provided that fixes the containers forwardly and backwardly relative to the shelf.

In a preferred form, containers containing different products of a product family are supported on the shelf in side-by-side relation to one another. The cleat system aligns the boxes on the shelf so that their front panels form a plane. The effect created visually to the consumer is that analogous to a billboard so as to present a neat and organized solution to the problem of keeping multiple small products in the same product family organized, and presenting the family as such and in an appealing manner. The cleat preferably runs for at least the length of the shelf on which the products of a family are supported, and may run for the entire length of the shelf. Preferably, the cleat permits lateral shifting of the containers along the cleat while restraining fore and aft shifting of the containers.

Containers used to practice the invention are preferably gravity fed, with a loading opening at or near the top and a dispenser opening near the bottom. A consumer can reach into the dispenser opening to grab the product being sold or a bag, box, or other small container containing the products being sold.

Products will be fed by gravity toward the opening in the bottom of the box and if a consumer changes his mind after he grabs a product, the consumer can easily return the product to the top of the carton or to the opening at the bottom.

In another aspect of the invention, the gravity-feed containers are relatively tall compared to their width. If mounted high, the tall space of the containers can utilize space not normally reachable by consumers. Since the dispensing opening is at the bottom of the box, consumers can reach the bottom, but the space at the top of the box is used for storage and therefore need not be reached by the consumer in many cases. In these types of cartons, the opening for returning a product to the carton can be either in the front wall of the carton or in the top. Front wall openings are better for longer products, such as cable ties. Top openings are better for smaller products, such as wire connectors, since the smaller products may tend to fall out of the front opening otherwise. Also, for longer articles, such as cable ties, cartons of the invention may be of varying depths, generally matching the length of the cable tie.

Regardless of the depth of the carton, however, the front surfaces of adjacent cartons should be aligned so that they form a viewing plane. Also, the front of each box should bear descriptive information about the product contained, including, for example, a picture or other visual graphic of the product, the name of the product, information about how many products are in each bag if they are bagged or contained products, and possibly use information for the product, such as how many wires and what gauge wires can be used with a wire connector. The front face of such cartons may contain considerably more information than what is typically found on shelf placards.

In addition, the information on the front of each box can be arranged in a uniform manner from one box to the next, so that it is easy for a consumer to identify the particular product the consumer needs, and so that the display is presented as a product family to the consumer. Also, making the front faces of the cartons uniform in the information which they display creates a very neat and organized appearance.

In another aspect of the invention, a display bar can be used either in conjunction with a carton or cartons of the invention or by itself. The display bar holds a number of products, for example electrical meters, at a viewing angle to the consumer and is supported by a pegboard. The display bar can be made out of sheet metal for example.

These and other advantages of the invention will appear in the detailed description which follows. In the description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a merchandising display, sometimes referred to as a planogram, that includes gravity-feed containers of the invention and also a display bar;

FIG. 2 is a view showing a gravity-feed container of the invention with the gravity-feed containers normally to its sides removed so that the spaces to the sides of the gravity-feed container can be seen;

FIG. 3 is a view showing the container tipped backwardly to show the slot in the bottom of the container that receives the upstanding flange of the angle bracket that is screwed or fastened to the shelf;

FIG. 4 is a view of gravity-feed containers of the invention showing the top opening in each of them;

FIG. 5 is a view of an alternate keeper for aligning cartons of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a clip for engaging the container to the keeper;

FIG. 7 is a frontal view of containers of the invention applied to cable ties, in which those containers have front wall indicia and openings in the front wall for filling the container;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a series of the cartons of the type shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 9 illustrates details of the display bar and how it is supported on pegboard at the ends;

FIG. 10 illustrates additional details of the display bar end support hangers; and

FIG. 11 is another view of the display bar.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 illustrates a display rack 10 having a container display 12 of the invention and a display bar 14 of the invention. The container display 12 is actually a number of relatively tall and narrow corrugated boxes 20 side-by-side, each of which contains a different product, but all the products are related in a single product family. For example, as illustrated, the products are wire connectors of the screw on type, with different boxes containing different sizes of connectors or packages of different numbers of connectors. All of the containers are supported on a shelf. The display bar 14 is supported from a pegboard behind the display bar 14 above the container display 12 and the display bar 14 is made of sheet metal, further described below.

Referring to FIG. 2, each container 20 has a front wall 22, two opposite side walls, a top wall, a bottom wall, and a rear wall. The front wall 22 of each container 20 bears graphics, for example by a label being applied, that substantially covers the front wall 22 above a dispensing opening 26. In general, each container 20 contains a different product, but all of the products are in the same product family. For example, the product family may be twist on wire connectors, and the different products may be 10, 25 or 50 packs of several different sizes or types.

Each label is preferably the same in arrangement of the information that the label bears. Each label in the upper portion may have the trade name of the connector contained inside the carton 20, for example Uni-Lok®, and if provided below that is a picture of the product contained. Beneath the picture may be the description in general of the product, for example “Wire Connectors” and below that may be features of the product, such as “Compact/High Leverage”, “Premium Wide Range”, “Grounding Connector”, and other names. Below that may be more detailed features, such as “Streamlined design for compact installations” and “Mini-wing provides improved leverage”. The quality level may be given and the range of wires that the connector is intended for is may be given with a colored background generally matching the color of the connector, for example, “Wire Range: 22-10”. Below that more specifics of the wire range may be given, such as “Minimum: 4-#22, Maximum: 3-#12”. Below that in large letters may be the number of products per bag within the container, for example, “25 pk”, “10 pk”, “50 pk”, etc. This is the number of wire connectors that are in each bag that is in the container 20. FIG. 7 shows different indicia applied to containers of cable ties, creating an organized and easily understandable display in “billboard” fashion.

Each container 20 has a dispensing opening 26 through which the product can be dispensed by the consumer. The dispensing opening 26 is in the front wall 22 of the container 20, right beneath the product description label. The base 28 of the container 20 below the opening 26 preferably extends somewhat forwardly from the front wall 22 as illustrated to present products to the consumer, and a panel of corrugated cardboard that forms part of the carton 20 can be folded up, over, and into the carton 20 to slope rearwardly and block off the lower wall of the carton 20, through which a slot 36 extends as described below and also to generally direct the consumer's hand toward the product. The sloping downward wall formed by panel 28 also helps keep products inside of the carton 20 so that they do not fall out, since it slopes downwardly and rearwardly.

Referring to FIGS. 2-4, a cleat 30 in the form of a right angle flange is secured with one of its flanges 29 (its horizontal flange) to the shelf so that it has an upstanding flange that runs laterally (across the width of the shelf) and is generally vertical that acts as a restraint 32. The flange 29 can be secured with screws or any other suitable means. The upstanding restraint 32, as shown in FIG. 6, fits into the slot 36 in the bottom of each carton 20. All the slots 36 in the bottoms of the cartons 20 are all spaced the same distance back from the front wall 22, and so, when the upstanding flange 32 is placed in the slot 36, all the front walls 22 of the adjacent cartons are in generally the same plane. This connection of the cartons 20 to the cleat 30 restrains the cartons from fore and aft movement or shifting relative to the shelf, while permitting sliding the cartons laterally, in the direction the cleat 30 runs. This creates a billboard effect visual impression, and a very neat and arranged-looking appearance that helps identify the products as a family to the consumer, and makes the consumer's selection process easier.

An alternative way of connecting the cartons 20 to the cleat 30 to restrain them fore and aft on the shelf while permitting lateral shifting is illustrated in FIG. 5. In FIG. 5, the cleat 30 is essentially the same, a right angle flange structure, that may be metal or any other material that is relatively rigid, that has two flanges, each of the flanges at 90° to the other, with one of the flanges 29 secured to the shelf such as by screws 31 and the other flange generally vertical and engaging the containers 20 so as to line them up.

In the case of the containers shown in FIG. 5, which may be wire connector containers, all of the containers are of the same depth. The rear wall 38 of each container has an opening 40 formed in it in which the lower curve of an S-hook 43 engages and the top curve of the S-hook 43 hooks over the top of upstanding restraint 32 of the cleat 30. Thus, containers 20 cannot be moved rearwardly as they would run into the cleat 30, and cannot be pulled forwardly because they are hooked in engagement with the restraint 32 of the cleat 30, but they can be slid laterally along the cleat to either side. Both the slot connection of the embodiment of FIGS. 2-4 and the S-hook connection of FIG. 5 permit lateral shifting of the cartons on the shelf. The cleat shown in FIGS. 2-4, which may also be referred to as a keeper, is best used with boxes which are of the same depth or variable depths, and the cleat or keeper of FIG. 8 is best used with containers of the same depth, so as to position the front walls of the containers in the same plane.

FIG. 7 illustrates the re-load openings 44 that are formed in the tops of the cartons 20. These re-load openings are so that if a consumer takes a package or product out of the dispensing opening 26 and changes his mind, the customer can put it back into the re-load opening 44. Referring to FIGS. 10 and 11, containers 50 similar to the containers 20 are illustrated but for cable ties. In the containers 50, the dispensing opening 52 is near the bottom as in the case of the containers 20, but the re-load opening 54 is in the front wall near the top, above the product information, which, as can be seen, is also displayed in a systematic and uniform manner from container to container. The re-load openings 54 are in the front walls because the cable ties are relatively long products and the depths of the containers are generally made to match the lengths of those products. Thus, the depths of the containers 50 may differ from one another.

The cleat 30 preferably extends laterally relative to the containers for at least the length of the shelf that the containers that present the product family extend, and may extend for the entire length of the shelf if bottom-slotted containers are used on the whole shelf length. In addition, more than one product family may be aligned by each cleat.

FIGS. 9-11 illustrate a display bar 60 displaying electrical instruments 62 at an angle to the consumer. Electrical instruments are displayed on the face 64 of the display bar 60 and are held there by means such as wire ties or other fastening means on pedestals 66, and information about each product is given alongside each product. The display bar 60 is formed of sheet metal and has an end bracket 68 at each end that has hooks that engage with the pegboard, which is behind the display bar 60. The hooks are typical pegboard hooks that, from the rear of the bracket, dog leg horizontally for a little more than two thicknesses of the pegboard and then vertically upward for a short distance. Corresponding products in blister packs or other hanging packs ready for sale are preferably displayed directly above each of the products displayed on the display bar, hanging from pegs that extend from the pegboard. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 9, two display bars can be placed end-to-end and made to look essentially like one long display bar since they abut in the middle of the one long display bar to make it appear as if they are one rather than two. As shown in FIG. 10, the end bracket of the display bar may be fastened by bolt 67 to the pegboard hook member, which preferably has two hooks to hook into two holes in the pegboard.

Preferred embodiments of the invention have been described in considerable detail. Many modifications and variations to the embodiments described will be apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, the invention should not be limited to the embodiments described, but should be defined by the claims which follow. 

1. In a merchandising display in which products are dispensed from containers supported on a shelf, the improvement wherein a cleat having an upstanding restraint that extends laterally across the shelf in the width-wise direction of the container is fixed to the shelf and wherein the upstanding restraint is connected to the containers to restrain the containers from depth-wise movement relative to the shelf.
 2. The improvement of claim 1, wherein at least one of the containers is taller than it is wide.
 3. The improvement of claim 2, wherein at least one of the containers has a dispensing opening in the front wall of the container near the bottom of the container.
 4. The improvement of claim 3, wherein at least one of the containers has a re-loading opening near the top of the container.
 5. The improvement of claim 4, wherein the re-loading opening is in the front wall of the container.
 6. The improvement of claim 4, wherein the re-loading opening is in the top wall of the container.
 7. The improvement of claim 3, wherein at least one of the containers has graphics on the front wall pertaining to the product.
 8. The improvement of claim 7, wherein multiple such containers are arranged side-by-side and the arrangement of graphics from one container to the next is uniform.
 9. The improvement of claim 1, wherein the container is made of corrugated paperboard.
 10. The improvement of claim 1, wherein the cleat is an angle bracket and the restraint is an upstanding flange of the bracket.
 11. The improvement of claim 1, wherein the cleat runs for at least the length of the shelf on which containers of a product family are supported.
 12. The improvement of claim 1, wherein the cleat runs for a length substantially equal to the entire length of the shelf.
 13. The improvement of claim 1, wherein the cleat permits lateral shifting of the containers along the cleat while restraining depthwise shifting of the containers.
 14. In a merchandising display in which products are displayed and that runs parallel to an aisle in which consumers can walk, the improvement wherein a product display bar runs parallel to the aisle and is supported by being hooked to a pegboard.
 15. The improvement of claim 14, wherein products displayed on the display bar are lined up with the same type of product displayed from a hook that extends from the pegboard above the product displayed on the display bar.
 16. The improvement of claim 14, wherein the display bar is made of sheet metal.
 17. The improvement of claim 14, wherein the display bar displays electrical instruments. 